Before the Great Fire of 1666

Celebrating Sir Francis Drake

On this day in 1586, Sir Francis Drake was feted in the Middle Temple on his return from the New World – where he had been busy “privateering” (plundering Spanish possessions).

Drake is also famous as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, between 1577-80, aboard the “Golden Hind(e)”. On April 4th, 1581, Elizabeth I visited his ship, which had been “drawn into a creek … at Deptford as a perpetual memorial for having circuited round about the whole earth”, and “consecrated it with great ceremonie, pompe and magnificence eternally to be remembered”; and knighted him (see also April 4th posting). The ship remained at Deptford for about 100 years, until it started to disintegrate and had to be broken up. A plaque on the water-front there marks the site and commemorates the event. There is a modern reconstuction of it in St Mary Overie Dock in Southwark.

Middle Temple Hall is visited on various of our walks, including the “Tudor and Stuart London”, themed special.

Further details of all our walks are available in the Our Guided Walks section of this web-site.